DreamHost Review

Intro

Founded in 1996, Los Angeles-based hosting provider DreamHost is a leader in web hosting, domain registration and cloud services for everyone from small businesses to developers and sole practitioners. Offering WordPress hosting and an insanely high uptime, DreamHost is exceptional for small businesses.

Another perk of DreamHost is its generous money-back guarantee, which is offered for 97 days from purchase, vastly different from standard 30 to 45-day offerings. DreamHost is also one of the few providers to offer a 100 percent uptime guarantee, making it a reliable option for all of your web hosting needs.

DreamHost Packages & Pricing

With DreamHost, users can pay for their plans on a monthly, yearly or every-three-years basis. DreamHost even offers discounts on its plans, depending on the length of time users sign up for. Take note though, the longer term you commit to, the cheaper your plan will become.

DreamHost plans do cost a little more than the average hosting provider, but they do come with the reassurance of great service and premium hosting features like unlimited domain hosting.

Shared Hosting

DreamHost’s Shared Hosting is perfect for someone managing a site with smaller numbers of traffic (such as a new website). Through its shared hosting plan, DreamHost also offers DreamPress, which gives users the chance to add even more storage, among other features.

The package is designed to handle increasing website traffic and has no caps on bandwidth. Additionally, there are numerous advanced security options. This is what makes shared hosting our strong recommendation.

Check out pricing and specs, here:

Term

Price

Specs

Monthly

Annually

Every 3 Years

$10.95

$9.95

$7.95

Unlimited Websites

WordPress Pre-Installed

Top Fight Tech Support

Fast SSD Hosting

Professional Email

Free, Let’s Encrypt SSL

Each DreamHost plan includes automatic updates as well as backups. It also gives users access to unlimited bandwidth and 24/7 customer support via live chat. As mentioned above, DreamHost’s shared hosting plans also enable one-click WordPress installation.

There is a chance you’ll have a learning curve if you’ve never used WordPress. For this, check out our comprehensive review on WordPress to learn the ins, outs as well as insider tips and hacks.

VPS Hosting

One of the best selling points of VPS hosting is customization, as VPS hosting lets you choose from semi-managed hosting where the web host handles some maintenance, whereas fully managed services are just that — fully managed by your hosting provider.

DreamHost’s VPS Hosting packages come standard with five years of security updates and a simple way to manage multiple servers through its cPanel. This feature also allows you to change the performance of your servers by adding additional RAM as necessary.

VPS Hosting

$15/month

$30/month

$60/month

$120/month

1GB RAM

2GB RAM

4GB RAM

8GB RAM

30GB of SSD Storage

60GB of SSD Storage

120GB of SSD Storage

240GB SSD Storage

Cloud Hosting

Ease-of-use, speed and overall ability to take more control of your website are what Cloud Hosting through DreamHost offers for users. Its cloud hosting plans come in three distinct price points for users.

Cloud Hosting

$15/month

$30/month

$60/month

$120/month

$165/year (one free month)

$330/year (one free month)

$660/year (one free month)

Yearly $1320 (one free month)

1GB RAM

2GB RAM

4GB RAM

8GB RAM

30GB SSD Storage

60GB SSD Storage

120GB SSD Storage

240GB SSD Storage

The above plans all include unlimited storage and domains. DreamHost also offers nearly-unlimited access to its cloud server. What this means is at the end of 30-day billing cycle, even if you have exceeded your usage for the month (over 600 hours), you will only be charged up to six hundred hours for usage.

Essentially, you are given five-to-six days free of charge, and every DreamHost account comes with 100GB of block storage and unlimited bandwidth.

Web Hosting

Accompanied by a free website builder for WordPress, DreamHost’s Web Hosting is affordable and includes three billing options, monthly, annually or every three years.

The overall benefit of DreamHost’s Web Hosting solution is the free domain you get once you sign up for a year of service. You also earn extra domain privacy protection, which we’ve found that other comparable hosting providers offer as a paid service.

Dedicated Hosting

Perfect for high-traffic websites, a dedicated server gives users full access to their site, tons of power and added security. This means users have their own server, eliminating the need to fight with others over server space. Website speed and performance are typically very high as a result.

DreamHost’s Dedicated Hosting comes with its own expert to manage and monitor your site’s performance. You’ll also get 24/7 customer service — available via live chat. You can even earn additional money hosting sites built for or by others, giving your customers peace-of-mind that their data and information are safe, secure and accessible.

Here’s how DreamHost’s Dedicated Hosting stacks up against the competition:

DreamHost

GoDaddy

BlueHost

HostGator

Max Cores

12

4

4

4

Max RAM

32GB

64GB

16GB16GB

SSD Storage

Yes

No

No

No

RAID 1

2TB

2TB

1TB

1Tb

Mad Bandwidth

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Uptime Promise

100$

99.9%

15TB

25TB

From the above comparison of leading hosting providers, you can see how DreamHost has many advantages over its competitors.

DreamHost

GoDaddy

BlueHost

HostGator

Max Cores

12

4

16

16

Max RAM

64GB

32GB

16GB

16GB

SSD Storage

Yes

No

No

No

Max Storage

2TB

2TB

1TB

1TB

RAID 1

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Max Bandwidth

Unlimited

20TB

15TB

25TB

Uptime

100%

99.9%

No Guarantee

No Guarantee

Regarding pricing, prices start at $149/month, and you can add additional specs like RAM, CPUs, hard drive storage and tops out at $279/month. Users also have many options for customization, through the use of DreamHost’s Control Panel.

Which DreamHost Hosting Option is Best for Me?

DreamHosts offers one of the best and most comprehensive Web Hosting plans. It is, therefore, our top recommendation, as it is an exceptional tool for small businesses.

One of the main reasons is that DreamHost does not cap its bandwidth, which ensures great loading speed for site visitors. To top it off, you’ll enjoy a money-back guarantee that’s virtually unmatched (97 days), and DreamHost will manage your site for you.

You will always have administrative access to your managed WordPress site, but never have to worry about configuring hardware, software, monitoring, backup or basic system management.

Standout Hosting Features

Customer Support: There is no phone support, but there is 24/7 live chat. There, you can have all of your issues resolved by a DreamHost professional. DreamHost’s support is knowledgeable about of the ins and outs of the company’s software and can help you navigate through any issue.

Security: DreamHost has features like Spam Hammer, SpamAssasin and even experts in spam, who will help you prevent spam altogether.

Affordable: With its most basic Managed WordPress plan, DreamHost is only $7.95.

Unlimited Bandwidth: DreamHost’s plans come with unlimited bandwidth.

Control Panel: Through the DreamHost Control Panel, users can design their website and enjoy daily backups, ensuring the safety of your most valuable content.

One-click Install: This cuts out long wait periods and multiple downloads, giving users the chance to quickly and securely download the apps important to them.

eCommerce Apps: Users gain access to eCommerce apps like ShopSite — allowing them to safely, and securely manage an online marketplace with ease.

Domain Registration

In general, when you purchase a domain through DreamHost, you also get free domain privacy which ensures the protection of sensitive information.

You can choose from over 400+ domain extensions, and you’ll also have access to:

Flexible Auto Renewals

DNS Management

Free Subdomains Included

Free Custom Nameservers

Domain Forwarding

Optional Domain Locking

You can even transfer a previously-purchased domain. If you purchase a Shared Hosting Plan, you qualify for one free domain and free registration as well.

In terms of pricing, you can expect to pay $11.95 for your first year for a .com domain. Other domains vary in price and start as low as $0.99.

Payment Terms & Conditions

If customers wish to take advantage of the 97-day money back guarantee, they should note that any of DreamHost’s partners are not a part of the refund policy, therefore, you will not qualify for a refund for third-party extensions.

The contract can be terminated by DreamHost or by the user and must be done by giving a 14-day written notice, which can be done electronically.

You can make payments via:

PayPal

Checking Account

Check or Money Order

Gift Card

Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and Diners Club

Uptime

DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Unlimited data storage, allowing users to keep the information on their sites safe, secure and accessible

Unlimited Site Hosting

Through its 100% uptime guarantee, the company promises reliability to each of its hosting customers

DreamHost has also given users access to one-click software installation, this saves users both time and money

Unlimited Subdomains

Fast loading times are also another plus of hosting your site with DreamHost, and are typically significantly faster than most of its competitors

Cons

Buy-ups for many features in the dashboard

Long wait times for live support

Limited plans and options

Bottom Line

If you are a small business owner, you will greatly benefit from having DreamHost. You will not only have peace of mind that your site will be properly managed, but you’ll also enjoy affordable services that will let you focus on managing your small business, and not being a full-time webmaster.

There are many app integrations and one-click installations like WordPress and Joomla. Even better, there are no hidden fees, and signing up is simple.